JOHN
MILTON
1608-1674
'A'hen he was rhtrtv, lohn Milton £~oclaime(lhimself the
.English epic. He promised a poem devoted to the glory of the
the deeds of King Arthur or some other ancient hero. When
his epic thirty years later. readers found instead a poem set
.garden of Eden.
in
future au!hQ.r_g!~~t
nation, centering around
Milton finally published
in Heaven, Hell, and the
which traditional heroism is denigrated and England not once
mentioned. What lay between the youthful promise and the eventual fulfillment was
a career marked by private tragedy and public controversy. Milton tells us much about
both these experiences in his works, which combine an intense self-scrutiny and
concern with authorship with urgent intervention in the great questions of his time.
It is scarcely possible to treat Milton's career separately from the history of England
in his lifetime, not only because he was an active participant in public affairs but also
because l,1_e
himself refused. to distinguish between his private life and affairs of ~~h
and state. When he signed himself, as he often did, ...
.J01i'ilNhlton, En~,"
he
did not srmply mean an Englishman. As England's self-appointed prophetic bard.
Milton saw himself as spokesman for the nation as a whole, even when he found
himself in a minority of one. Mtlrcn was a man who devoted his life to public causes,
but whose understanding of those causes often arose out of the most personal concerns.
The young Milton self-consciously set out to follow the steps of the ideal poetic
career beginning ,dth-pastoral an-d eilcling "with ~£-mQ;lel.e:iLoxi:i!iiLPLthe
Roman poet VirgiL In this
stood at
0EP.~ite el!~ __
the specffum from su~,fi Gavali~_~._contemporaries ~_ Su.~IiU_IJg.~_IJ~:t.
&~~elace,_ who
turned to verse with an.~ of studied c-arelessness-.t\Iilton began
writlflg
poems in Latin and several English poems in the pastoral mode: lyrics, the masque
Comus (1634), and the pastoral elegy Lycidos (1683). These are extraordinary works
~proacfitOliiS'~o~;:~;he
the
by
~J
occaslonaf
in their own right. which crown and transform their respective genres, but Milton
also undertook them as preparation fo!_!-!"t~~ater g_~nres of tragedy and epic. He
was embarking on a road previously trBveled byTcfffiUnd Spense;:-,'Vhom'he c'ilTed "a
better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas ....Milton resembles Spenser in certain ways,
above all in his constant use of myth and archetype. alluding to and juxtaposing
biblical and cIassicaJ stories. But Milton's learning was greater than Spenser's. As part
of his preparation for a poetic career, he undertook a sfx-vear p'ro.m
of self..cfirected
reading m a~SIent_~~~dern
iheo~~~~~~_~~p,~,
~~l~!?'cy:-sci'"e~~:
.p~Jitics,~
and
literature. His co~.~~.!?!!~~~.ag~
~~.cIu~~d Latin,_ Greek, Hebr:ejy_~nd its dialects;
tralian, French, ·Spanish. and Dutch. The sum of the western literary and intellectUal
heritage
hIS ,,\:ritfng'& immediatel..- and directly as the circumstances of
his own life. but he continually reconceived
ideas. lite~n' forms. and values of
this heritage to make them relevant to himself and his age.'
.
For Milton to devote six years of his adult life to an obscure course of private study
fmPInged on
the
1772
I _YOHi'\: ;\IILTO~
required exrraordinery confidence in the service he hoped to perform for God and
country. It also. of course, required money. which was provided bv his father, who
was a' successful scrh~._9nn.tJin~t1<!'l!__qL~olici.~o!
.. in"~~tment adviser,
!!lQney lender. Although Milton enjoyed the company of some aris~ocrats and ~as
profoundly grateful that his father spared him from the grubby business of making
money. he belonged to the London bourgeoisie. His father's business dealings and
loans 'at interest paid for private tutors in his youth, for his education at St. Paul's,
one of the finest schools in the land, for his seven years at Cambridge and the six
years of reading that followed. and for his "grand [QUI''' of France. Italy, and Switzerland at the age of thirty. Yet Milton's connection with the class that stood to ~enefit
most directlv from Europe's first bourgeois revolution does not account for hIS passionate political views. His brother, Christopher, fought on the royaI~st s~.fgr
the
Milton brothers. as for most of.their c~'!t~l'!:!P<?~r_i.~~r_~~£!~1!~'..':a.~
~Id~l!.'?!-,~~~
a controntation of class interes'rs:' b"irt-a-s ~ c~nfJict between .~d!c~JI!-_~iffuri~IUh~~~~s
ana-
~~;~ta-~~r~~fi:[email protected]·
,
From the outbreak of the conflict until his death. Milton was allied \lith the Puntan.
cause. Yet hIS religtous opinions developed throughout his life. from r~lati\'e orthodcxv in hjs youth to ever more heretical positions in his later years. Milton went up
to Cambridge in 162; with every intention of taking orders in the Church of England.
In the hindsight of 1642. he blamed the lack of reformation and the corruption in
the English Church under Archbishop Laud for forcing him to abandon that goal,
proclaiming himself "church-outed
by the Prelates." Milton's change of direction
must also have been linked to the fastidious contempt he ex-pressed for the ignorant
and clownish clergymen-in-making
who were his fellow students at Cambridge: "They
thought themselves gallant men, and I thought them fools:' Those fellow students
dubbed Milton 'The Lady of Christ's College." Above all. Milton came to believe that
he was destined to sen'e his language, his country, and his God as a wet, In his first
major English poem, the hymn On the Alonung of Christ's Nativity (written at the age
of twenty-one)! Milton had already begun to construct himself as a prophetic hard.
His sense of poetic mission grew over the next decade, accompanied by growing
disillusion with the Church of England. Both are present in Lycidas (I638), written
to lament the untimely death of his Cambridge contemporary Edward King. The
figure of King recedes in the poem nexr to Mi}ran's anxious contemplation of poetry
as a vocation and his furious diatribe against the corrupt Anglican clergy who leave
their charges prey to the "grim wolf" of Catholicism. Yet while he was in Italy on the
Grand Tour (1638-39). i\Iilton delighted in exchanging verses and learned ccmpllments with various Catholic intellectuals and men of [etters. some of whom became
friends. Milton could always maintain friendships and family relationships across
ideological divides.
Upon his return to England. Milton opened a school and was soon involved in
Presbyterian efforts to depose the bishops and reform Church liturgy, writing five
"Antipreladcal" tracts denouncing and satirizing bishops. These were the first in @
remarkable ~_~ties_~f'po1itical i~~_~:~I'!TJQ!l~.\y__l:t!.c;h
9~cupied i\:m!2!!..fu~,:th~.!L~_!'5:~~
vears, untIl the disaster tEar him} of the Restoration, He wrote successively on church
g;:emment~
divorce, education, freedom of the press. regicide, and republicanism.
He also served as Latin Secretary to the Commonwealth Government (1649-;3) and
to Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate (1654-;8).
writing the official letters-mostly
in
Latin-to
foreign governments and heads of state. Yet Milton was the very opposite
of a faceless spokesman for a party line, From the beginning to the end of his polemical career. his publications show an extraordinary courage and independence
of
thought. In his tracts ad\-'ocating divorce on the grounds of i~~~..2.1!.~_i~~
and wit~
the right to remam', he ado ted and vigorously defendeaaposirion
almost unheard
of at
e time. one which require
a 0 y anti If¤fiil'rearungof1liegdSels."ln
reopagitica, e put forwar an impassione
e ense 0 a ee pressagainst a Parliament determined to restore effective censorship. And just as he was among the first
JOH" MILTO"
I 1773
to attack the power of the bishops, so he was virtually the last defender of the "Good
Old Cause" of the Revoluucn: the second edition of his Readl' and Easv Him' to Establish a Free Commmm'ealtlz appeared in lare April 1660. scarcely two weeks before the
Restoration.
Several of these treatises were also prompted by personal concerns or crises. In his
polemical tract The Reason of Church G01.'enmrent Urged Against Frelnt)" Milton
devoted several pages to a discussion of his poetic vocation and the great works he
might produce in the future. His writings on divorce, which can hardly have seemed
the most pressing of issues in the strife-tom years 1643-45. "'ere moti\"ated bv his
personale~"J:l~~nce
!>~ disastrousmamage. Agedthirc:-thr:e. ~nexperien~
women. and idealistIC aooun'narrlage as in essence a uman or trunds and 5 irits. ?e
_~~~J._~:
had wedded a young woman a se\'enteen,.
~ry
0 ~etumed .to he.r ro~ahst
femil" 'ust a few months after the mama .e. Afi1!:?_n
resp~~eaby tu~~~~~p~:I\~_~:.
¢ef_into a _matter 0 ~P.!!~_1.c
CO!1~~!.~·:~~c:.!~~t
~Eat his tracts ~'Orce
c~iili! ~o.!.
he licensed and "\~.t=.~un'dlYde~,:t~~~~ ~~aifi~:
fro~ .:eufp!~.__
a~? In .E.:!:~t
..Eromp-ts4._himl~~~~~~
.."f"!_PP!!.G.z.!.~~~'
'fiIS~ ~.!.ll-2.l!~~e~,:._~
£I:~r~~
the free commerce in Ideas.Yerhe saw all these personalls_su.es-<::.ref§r~~.q,p_o~~.
the dq_mestic
~"Qrs~:
p.r~.5S-::-:.~.lita1
to th~Sr.~~gQ.!_l_
qf.~r.~fl?,z:m~g
.~ngl.i@_s_~.~~~.
th~years that followed. \Iil~n_. :l!uffe_~d a series of a&!>ni.~~g_m:tg~~i~s.' Mary
Powell returned to himinT645. but died in chifdbiithiil"r63~.Jea\~!lg four children;
the onIv so~:-dIed-;fe\~:'nionths
lat~r. In :the same year -.Milton became tO~,ny
blind. \\'hat ;;-~he'ineilical
causes, i'vlilton himself attributed his blindness to late
nights of reading in his youth an
is exertions in writing defenses of the execution
of Charles I and the new republic, Milton married again in 1656, a~p._arent1yhappily,
hut his new wife, Katherine Woodcock, was dead two years later, along with their
infant daughter. Katherine is probably the subject of his sonnet NTetl~ougltt I SoU'Mr
Late Espoused Saint, a moving dream-vision poignant with the sense of loss-both
of
sight and of Iove,@U[Qn had little time for poetry in these years. but his few sonnets
revolutionized the genre. overlaying the Perrarchan metrical structure with an urgent
rhetorical voice and using the small sonnet form, hitherto confined mainly to matters
of love. for new and grand subjects: praise of Cromwell mixed with admonition and
political advice: a prophetic denunciation calling do\'I.'TIGod's vengeance for Prorestants massacred in Piedmont; an emotion-filled account of his continuing struggle to
come to terms with his blindness as part of God's providence.l
i\-liIton's courageous defense of the Revolution down to the last possible moment
could have spelled disaster for him upon the return of Charles II, For several months
after that event, he was in hiding, his life in danger. but friends. especially the poet
Andrew Marvell, managed his pardon and later hjs release from a brief imprisonment.
He lived out his last years in reduced circumstances,
plagued by ever more serious
attacks of gout but grateful for the domestic comforts provided by his third wife,
EHzabeth i\linshull, whom he married in 1663 and who sun.i\'ed him. In such can='"
ditions. dismayed by the defeat of his political ~lreligious cause, totally blind and
often ill. threatened by the horrific plague of 1665 and the great fire of 1666, and
entirely dependent on amanuenses and friends to transcribe his dictation, he completed the great epic poem that undertakes to "justify the ways of God to men."
Paradise Lost radically reconceives the epic genre and epic heroism, choosing as protagonists a domestic couple rather than martial heroes, and degrading the military
glory celebrated in epic tradition in favor of the "better fortitude I Of patience and
heroic martyrdom. ,. Michael's prophecy to Adam makes clear that the course of
human history is tragic, that the world will remain "to good malignant, to bad men
benign" until the Second Coming of Christ, Yet it also makes clear that throughout
history God n111 raise up prophets and heroes to resist nicked tyrants and corrupt
societies,
In his final years, .Milton continued to pursue subjects that had interested him from
.!~iI1}·~~~~i
~~hi.~~~~.~_:th~ug~
.·~~t:;~~r!fu?~li~~
..
In
1774
I
JOHN MILTON
his youth, publishing works on grammar and logic chiefly written during his days as
schoolmaster, a History afBritain (1670) from earliest times to the Nonnan Conquest,
and a treatise urging toleration for Puritan dissenters (1673). He also continued work
on his Christian Doctrine, a Latin treatise which re\'ea1s~\\' far Milton had moved
from the orthodoxies of his day. The work denies the Trinity (making Christ and the
Holy Spirit much inferior to God the Father), insists upon free will (against Calvinist
predestination), and privileges the inspiration of the Spirit over the Scriptures and
the Ten Commandments. Such radical and heterodox positions could not be made
public in his lifetime, certainly not in the repressive conditions of the Restoration,
and Milton's C1nistiall Doctrine was lost to view for over 150 year5.1
In 1671 Mtlton published two poems which resonate with echoes of the harsh
repression and the moral and political challenges Puritan dissenters faced after the
Restoration. Paradise Regained, a brief epic in four hooks, treats Jesus' Temptation
in the wtldemess as a hard intellectual struggle through which the hero comes to
understand himself and his mission and defeats Satan by renouncing the whole panoply of false or faulty versions of the good life and of his kingdom. Samson Agonistes,
a classical tragedy, is the more harrowing for the resemblances between its tragic hero
and its author. The deeply flawed, pain-wracked, blind, and defeated Samson struggles, in dialogues with his visitors, to gain self-knowledge, discovering at last a desperate way to triumph over his captors and offer his people a chance to regain their
freedom. In these last poems, Milton sought to educate his readers in moral and
political wisdom and virtue. Only through such inner transformation,
Milton now
firmly believed, would men and women come to value-and
so perhaps reclaim-s-the
intellectual, religious, and political freedom he so vigorously promoted in his prose
and poetry.
Paradise Lost
The setting of ~lilton's great epic encompasses Hea\·en.~Hen,
primordial Chaos, ~~ Jh~.J~I~et Earth, It.features battles among immortal spirits,
voyages through space, ana lakes of fire. Yet its protagonists are a married couple
living in a garden, and its climax consists in the eating of a piece of fruit, Paradise
Lost is ultimatelv about the human condition, the Fall that caused "all our woe," and
the promise and means of restoration. It is also about kno\\"ing and choosing, about
~.ln
the opening passages of Books 1, 3, 7. and 9.l'-liltonhighlights
the choices
and difficulties he faced in creating his poem. His central characters-Satan.
Beelzebub. Abdfel. Adam, and E\"e-are confronted with hard choices under the pressure
of powerful desires and sometimes devious temptations, ;\lilton's readers, too, are
50ntinuaUv challenged to choose and to reconsider their~most 6aslc_~:~_~~~~~.~s
1816
I
Jam"
MILTO"
about freedom. heroism. work. pleasure. language. nature. and lovefn,~ great the~es
of Paradise Lost are intimately linked to the political questions at stiKe In the En~hsh
Revolution and Restoration. but the connection is by no means simple or straightforward. This is a poem in which Satan leads a revolution against an absolute m~narch
and i which questions of tyranny, servitude, and liberty are debated in a P~rliame~t
in Herui\'Iilton' 5 readers are hereby challenged to re~ink .th~e ~opics and, like Abdtel
debating with Satan in Books 5 and 6, to make crucial dis~ncnons. . .
.
In Milton's time. the conventions of epic poetry compnsed a familiar recipe. The
action should begin in medias res lin the middle of things), follo\\ing the poet's statsment of his theme and invocation of his Muse. The reader coUld expect grand battles
and love affairs, supernatural Intervention, a descent into the underworld, catalogs
of warriors, and epic similes. Milton had absorbed the epic tradition in its entir:ety,
and his poem abounds with echoes of Homer and Virgil. the fifteenth-century ~talians
Tasso and ..Anosro, and the English Spenser, But in Paradise Lost he at once heightens
epic conventions and values and utterly transforms them. This is the epic to end all
epics, Milton gives us the first and great~~n
\,,"-an (between
God ..~d S~)
and
the first and greatest of love affairs (between Adam and Eve), His theme is the destiny
of the entire human race, caught up in the temptation and FaIl of our first "grand
parents,"
Milton challenges his readers in Paradise Lost, at once fulfilling and defying all of
our expectations. Nothing in the epic tradition or in biblical interpretation can prepare
us for the Satan who hurtles into view in Book 1~with his awesome energy and
defiance, incredible fortitude, and, above all, magnificent rhetoric. For some readers,
including Blake and Shelley, Satan has been the true hero of the poem, But Milton
is engaged in a radical re-evaluation of epic values. and Satan's version of heroism
must be contrasted with those of the 10~'3]Ahdie1 and the Son of God. Moreover, the
poem's truly epic action takes place not on the battlefield but in the moral and domestic arena, Milton's Adam and E"e are not conventional epic heroes. but neither are
they the conventional Adam and EYe. Their state of innocence is not childlike, tranquil, and free of sexual desire. instead, the first couple enjoy sex. experience tension
and passion, make mistakes of judgment, and grow in knowledge. Their task is to
prune what is unruly in their own natures as they prune the vegetation in their garden,
for both have the capacity to grow wtld. Their relationship exhibits gender hierarchy,
but Milton's early readers may have been surprised by the fullness and complexity of
Eve's character and the centrality of her role. not only in the Fall but in the promised
restoration,
We expect in epics a grand style. and Milton's style engulfs us from the outset
with its energy and power, as those rushing, enjambed, blank-,'erse lines propel us
along with only a few pauses for line endings or grammar (there IS only one fullstop in the first twenry-six lines), The elevated diction and complex syntax, the
sonorities and patternings, make a magnificent music. But that music is an entire
orchestra of tones, including the high political rhetoric of Satan in Books 1 and 2,
the evocative sensuousness
of the descriptions of Eden, the deiicacv of Eve's love
lyric to Adam in Book 4, the relatively plain speech of God in B~ok 3, and the
speech rhythms of Adam and Eye's marital quarrel in Book 9. This majestic
achievement depends on the poet's rejection of heroic couplets, the nann for epic
and tragedy in the Restoration. \igo~r
defended by Dryden, but denounced by
Milton in his note on "The Verse." [The choice of verse form was, like so many
other things in ~lilton's life, in part a question of politics, Milton's terms associate
the "troublesome and modem bondage of rhymmg" with Restoration monarchy and
repression of dissidents and present his use of unrhymed blank verse as a recovery
of "ancient Hberty,"(
The first editiotlO667}
presented Pamdise Lost in ten books; the second (1674)
recast it into twelve ~after
the Vlrgilian model, splitting the original Books 7 and
10. -
Name
Period
Paradise Lost Opinions
1. I believe that God exists.
Agree
Disagree
2. I believe that the devil/Satan exists.
Agree
Disagree
3. I believe the devil/Satan is an actual being, not just a force.
Agree
Disagree
4. I believe God is in control of all things, and therefore more powerful than Satan.
Agree
Disagree
5. Humans are essentially good.
Agree
Disagree
6. We are supposed to understand why God does what He does.
Agree
Disagree
7. Hell is an actual place.
Agree
Disagree
8. Evil serves a purpose in this world.
Agree
Disagree
9. God cannot be fully understood, so we shouldn’t try to explain Him.
Agree
Disagree
10. Evil, though powerful, is still subject to God’s control.
Agree
Disagree
11. God allows evil to exist in order to make good come from it.
Agree
Disagree
12. I’d rather live in prison as the warden and be able to make the rules, than be a servant in a beautiful
place for a demanding master.
Agree
Disagree
13. I’d rather be strongly wrong than weakly right.
Agree
Disagree
14. You can decide to be happy, no matter the circumstances.
Agree
Disagree
15. Weakness is the worst flaw of all.
Agree
Disagree
16. I have thought about
many
some
none
of these statements before today.
Name
Period
Paradise Lost (from Book I)
Cast of Characters
Adam: the first human being; created by God by His own hand and breath; husband of Eve, who was
created from his rib; described as the “goodliest man of men (IV.323); given the tasks of naming the
animals and tending the Garden of Eden
Eve: the mother of all mankind; the first and most beautiful woman; wife to Adam, having been made
by God from Adam’s rib.
God: the Creator of the universe, of angels, Heaven, Hell, and man; the Supreme Being; omniscient,
omnipotent, omnipresent, and ruler of all
Satan: generally acclaimed as the most compelling and complex character in the epic; his name means
“enemy” or “adversary” in Hebrew; formerly he was called Lucifer and was one of the highest-ranking
angels, but envy drove him to rebel against God.
Beelzebub: Satan’s lieutenant and chief supporter; in his speech in Book I, he reveals that he fears
eternal slavery in Hell; he is described as appearing like “[A] pillar of state” (II.302); a majestic, wise
statesman
Messiah: the Son of God and future incarnation of Jesus Christ, whom the Father ordains king of
angels and his equal in power; he defeats Lucifer’s rebellion and is sent by his Father to carry out the
miracle of Creation. He volunteers to die for man’s sin; acts as judge over Adam and Eve, mercifully
postponing their punishment of death; intercedes with God for their redemption.
Provide line numbers for each answer.
----------lines 1-26---------1. To whom does Milton refer when he writes, “Of man’s first disobedience and the fruit / Of that
forbidden tree”?
2. How does Milton describe the “taste” of the “forbidden tree”?
3. On whom or what does Milton call to “instruct” him and “illumine” “[w]hat in [him] is dark”?
4. What does Milton mean when he says that he wants to “justify the ways of God to men”?
----------lines 27-49---------5. Milton asks, “What cause / Moved our grand parents in that happy state . . . to fall off / From their
Creator, and transgress his will?” Who are the “grand parents,” and who does he reveal is
responsible for their fall?
6. (a) What does Milton say was Satan’s crime against God? (b) What punishment did God inflict on
him?
Harris, English IV H
Name
Period
----------lines 50-83---------7. (a) What is the “thought of loss happiness” that Satan must suffer? (b) What is the “lasting pain [that]
torments him”?
8. According to Milton in lines 61-69, what is hell like?
9. (a) With whom does Satan begin to talk? (b) Where does he rank compared to Satan?
----------lines 84-124---------10. Satan tells Beelzebub that he (Beelzebub) has “changed.” What did he used to look like?
11. Satan explains why he tried to fight God. Now that the war is over, has Satan’s attitude toward God
changed any? Quote the lines that support your answer.
12. Satan says, “All is not lost.” What does he still have left?
13. What “glory never shall [God] / Extort from [him]”? On other words, what does Satan boast he will
never do?
14. Why does Satan say they may hope to wage “eternal war” against God “with more successful
hope” this time?
----------lines 125-155---------15. How does Beelzebub say that God’s “high supremacy” was upheld?
16. Why does he now “believe [God is] almighty”?
Harris, English IV H
Name
Period
17. Beelzebub feels that it is pointless to continue to resist God now. Rather, what type of “service” or
“errands” does he fear God has left the rebels alive to perform for Him?
----------lines 156-191---------18. As Satan replies to Beelzebub, what does he reveal will be their “task” from now on?
19. Along similar lines, what must their “labor” be?
20. Describe the “plain” that Satan points out to Beelzebub.
21. Before they fly over to this plain, where had they been? In other words, what type of surface were
they on?
22. From what may the rebels gain “reinforcement”? From what may they gain “resolution”?
----------lines 192-220---------23. To whom is Satan compared? Name three different figures. What do all three have in common?
24. Why does “all-ruling Heaven” permit Satan to become unchained and fly away to the plain?
25. What does God plan to bring forth out of Satan’s efforts to make evil?
26. How does Satan plan to counteract God’s plan?
Harris, English IV H
Name
Period
----------lines 221-241---------27. Describe the “dry land / He lights.”
28. How is Satan’s flying and landing similar to “thundering Etna”? See footnote.
29. Why are Satan and Beelzebub pleased that they were able to escape the “Stygian flood”?
----------lines 242-270---------30. To what does Satan bid “farewell” as he greets the “horrors” of Hell? Quote the lines.
31. How does Satan describe his mind? Quote the lines.
32. How does Satan use his mind to rationalize his predicament?
33. Why does Satan say that it is “better” for him to be in Hell than in Heaven?
Harris, English IV H
1970
390
400
405
4'0
I
JOHN
MILTON
Though not as she with bow and quiver armed,
But with such gardening tools as art yet rude,
Guiltless of fire- had formed, or angels brought.
To Pales, or Pomona, thus adorned,
Likest she seemed' Pomona when she fled
Vertumnus, or to Ceres in her prime,
Yet virgin of Proserpina from Jove.
Her long with ardent look his eye pursued
Delighted, but desiring more her stay.
Oft he to her his charge of quick return
Repeated, she to him as oft engaged
To be returned by noon amid the bow'r, •
And all things in best order to invite
Noontide repast, or afternoon's repose.
o much deceived, much failing,O haples-s° Eve,
Of thy presumed return! event perverse]- '.f
Thou never from that hour in Paradise ;';rr,
Found'st either sweet repast, or sound repose:
Such ambush hid among sweet flow'rs and shades
Waited with hellish rancor Imminenr.'.
I:!
To intercept thy way, or send thee back
! - "
Despoiled of innocence, of faith; 'of bliss.
For now, and since first break of dawn the Fiend,
Mere serpent in appearance, forth was come," And on his quest, where likeliest he might find
The only two of mankind, but in them
The whole included race, his purposed prey.
In bow'r and field he sought, where any tuft
Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay,
Their ten dance or planration« for delight,
By fountain or by shady rivulet"
He sought them both, but wished his hap" might find
Eve separate; he wished, but not with hope
Of what so seldom chanced, 'when to his wish,
Beyond his hope, Eve separate, he' spies,
Veiled in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood,.:;
Half spied, so thick the roses bushing round :
About her glowed, oft stooping to support
Each flow'r of slender stalk, whose head though gay
Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold,
Hung drooping unsustained, them she upstays
Gently with myrtle band, mindless" the while,
Herself, though fairest unsupported flow'r
From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh.'
Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed "
erring/unlucky
"*
415
420
425
430
4. Having no experience of fire, not needed in Paradise.'Miiton
may be alluding to the guilt of Prometheus, who stole fire from heaven.
5. These goddesses, like Eve, are associated with
agriculture (lines 393-96)-Pales,
with Ilocks and
pastures; Pomona, with fruit 'trees, Ceres with harvests-and
the latter two foreshadow Eve's situation: Pomona was' chased by the wood god
.n .
,
luck
heedless
"Vertumn~'5;; 'in ma-~y g~ises ~ef~re' surrendering
. to him; Ceres was impregnateJ by Jove with Proserpina-Iater
carried off to Hades by Pluto.
6. Le., which they had cultivated or planted for
thcirplcasure .. ·.
1:1,:
7. The conceit of the' flower-gatherer who is herself gathered evokes Ihe"story Of Proserplna, to
whom it was applied in 4.269-71. '_-,.
<
"';
.
PARADISE
,,0
445
LOST,
BOOK 9
Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm,
Then voluble" and bold, now hid, now seen
Among thick-woven arborets" and flow'rs
Embordered on each bank, the hand" of Eve,
Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned
Or of revived Adonis, or renowned
AJcinous, host of old Laertes' son,
Or that, not mystic, where the sapient king'
Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse, S
Much he the place admired, the person more.
/
197 I
undulating
small trees
handiwork
As one who long in populous city pent,
Where houses thick and sewers annoy? the-air,
make noisome, befoul
Forth issuing on a summer's morn to breathe
Among
.50
the pleasant
villages and farms
Adjoined, from each thing -met concelves'rlelfght,
The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine,' ,
Or dairy, each
If chance with
What pleasing
She most, and
rural sight, each
nymph-like step
seemed, foro her
in her look sums
rural sound,'.
fair.virgin.pass,
now pleases more,
all delight.
. i
Such pleasure took the Serpent to behold
.60
465
470
'"
,
~,
'"
.80
.
.i,
,
' ", ;
This fIow'ry plat," the sweet recess'tof Eve
Thus early, thus alone; her heav'nly formAngelic, but more soft, and feminine, .
Her graceful innocence,
her every air"
Of gesture or least action overawed
His malice, and with rapine sweet' bereaved
His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought: \'
That space the Evil One abstracted" stood
From his own evil, and for the time 'remainedStupidly good," of enmity disarmed,'
:,:,'
Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge;
.. ",.But the hot hell that always in him burns,
Though in mid-heav'rr, soon ended hisdelight.s..
And tortures him now more, the more he- sees Of pleasure not for him ordained:' then .soon
Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts
Of mischief gratulating,"
thus excites!
"Thoughts, whither have ye led me, with what sweet
Compulsion
thus transported
to forget
What hither brought us, hate, not love, ncrhope.
Of Paradise for Hell, hope here to taste
Of pleasure, but all pleasure to destroy,
Save what is in destroying, other joy,
To me is lost. Then let me not-let pass
Occasion which now smiles, behold alone
The woman, opportune"
to all attempts,
8. The gatdens: of Adonis; were beauty spots
named for the lovely youth loved by Venus, killed
by a boer, "and subsequently
revived; "Odysseus"
("Laertes' son") was entertained
by ~Alcillous" inhis beautiful gardens; Solomon ("thesapientkirig")
entertained his "fair Egyptian spouse," the Queen
.',because-of
of Sheba,
'plot/tetre~i
manner
withdrawn
,,
-.good because stupefied
in a' real garden
greeting
open
{not
"mystic," or
"Feigned.vas the others were).
9. Cattle. "Teddcd". spread out to dry, like hay.
1: From Latin+raperc,"
to seize, the root of both
"rape" and "rapture," underscoring the paradox of
the ravisher. (temporarily) ravished. ;L'~,'
1972
485
490
495
500
505
510
515
520
525
I
JOHN MILTON
Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh,
Whose higher intellectual more I shun,
And strength, of courage haughty," and of limb
Heroic built, though of terrestrial" mold,
Foe not informidable, exempt from wound,
I not; so much hath Hell debased, and pain
Enfeebled me, to what I was in Heav'n.
She fair, divinely fair, fit love for gods,
Not terrible," though terror be in love
And beauty, nota approached by stronger hate,
Hate stronger, under show of love well feigned,
The way which to her ruin now I tend."
So spake the Enemy of mankind, enclosed
In serpent, inmate bad, and toward Eve
Addressed his way, not with indented" wave,
Prone on the ground, as since, but on his rear,
Circular base of rising folds, that tow'red
Fold above fold a surging maze, his head
Crested aloft, and carbuncle" his eyes;
With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect
Amidst his circling spires," that on the grass
Floated redundant:" pleasing was his shape,
And lovely, never since of serpent kind
Lovelier, not those that in Illyria changed
Hermione and Cadmus, or the god
In Epldaurus." nor to which transformed
Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline was seen,
He with Olympias, this with her who bore
Scipio, the height of Horne.' With tract" oblique
At first, as one who sought access, but feared
To interrupt, sidelong he works his way.
As when a ship by skilful steersman wrought
Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind
Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail;
So varied he, and of his tortuous train
Curled many a wanton" wreath in sight of Eve,
To lure her' eye, she busied heard the sound
Of rustling leaves, but minded not, as used
To such disport before her through the field,
From every beast, more duteous at her call,
Than at Circean" call the herd disguised.
He bolder now, uncalled before her stood; ..
But as in gaze admiring: oft he bowed
His turret crest, and sleek enameled" neck,
Fawning, and licked the ground whereon she trod.
His gentle dumb expression turned at length
2. The legendary founder of Thebes, "Cadrnus,"
and his wife Harmonia
(Milton's "Hermione")
were changed to serpents when they went to
"lIIyria" in old age; Aesculapius, god of healing,
sometimes came forth as a serpent fron his temple
in "Epidaurus."
3. Jupiter Ammon ("Ammonian Jove") made love
exalted
earthly
terrihing
unless
zigzag
deep red
coils
iu swellhtg waves
course
luxuriant, sportive
multicolored
to "Olympias" in the form of a snake, and sired
Alexander the Great; the Jupiter worshipped in
Rome ("Capitoline") also in serpent form, sired
Scipio Africanus,
the savior and great leader
("height") of Rome.
4. Circe, in the Odyssey, transformed
men to
beasts and was attended by an obedient herd.
PARADlSE
LOST,
BOOK
The eye of Eve to mark his play; he glad
Of her attention gained, with serpent tongue
o Organic, or impulse of vocal air,"
53
. His fraudulent temptation thus began.
5+0
"wonder not, sovran mistress, if perhaps
Thou canst, who art sale wonder, much less arm
Thy looks, the heav'n of mildness, with disdain,
Displeased that I approach thee thus, and gaze
535
Insatiate, I thus single, nor have feared
Thy awful brow, more awful thus retired;
Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair,
Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine
By gift, and thy celestial beauty adore
540
With ravishment beheld, there best beheld
Where universally admired; but here :
In this enclosure wild, these beasts among,
Beholders rude, and shallow to discern
Half what in thee is fair, one man except,
Who sees thee? (and what is one?) who shouldst be seen
A goddess among gods, adored and served
By angels numberless, thy daily train."~
So glozed" the Tempter, and his proem" tuned;'
Into
the heart of Eve his words made way,
550
Though at the voice much marveling; at length
Not unamazed she thus in answer spake.
"What may this mean? Language of man pronounced
By tongue of brute, and human sense expressed?
The first at least of these I thought denied
To beasts: whom God on their creation-day
Created mute to all articulate sound:
The latter I demur," for in their looks
-tMuch reason, and in their actions oft appears.
560
'Thee, serpent, subtlest beast of all the field
-I knew.but not with human voice endued:"
Redouble then this miracle, and say;
How cam'st thou speakable" of mute, and how
- To me so friendly grown above the rest
Of brutal kind, that daily are in sight?
Say, for such wonder Claims attention due." ,
To whom the guileful Tempter thus replied:
"Empress of this fair world, resplendent Eve,
Easy to me it is to tell thee all
What thou command'st, and right thou shouldst be obeyed:
570
I was at first as other beasts that graze '
The trodden herb, of abject thoughts and low,
As was my food, nor aught but food discerned
Or sex, and apprehended nothing high:
Till on a day roving the field, I chanced
A goodly tree far distant to behold
*
9
I
1973
r
flattered/prelude
hesitate about
endowed
able to speak
5"
5. Satan either used the actual tongue of the serpent or impressed the air with his own voice.
6. Satan's entire speechts cOllched in the cxtravagant praises of the Petrarchan love convention.
1978
/
JOHN
MILTON
inward freedom? In the day we eat
Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die.
How dies the serpent? He hath eat'n and lives,
765
And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns,
Irrational till then. For us alone
Was death invented? Or to us denied
This intellectual food, for beasts reserved?
For beasts it seems: yet that one beast which first
770
Hath tasted, envies" not, but brings with joy
The good befall'n him, author urisuspect,"
Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile.
What fear I then, rather what know to fear
Under this ignorance of good and evil,
775
Of God or death, of law or penalty?
Here grows the cure of all, this: fruit divine,
Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,
Of virtue" to make wise: what hinders then
To reach, and feed at once both body and mind?"
780. {\*So
saying, her rash hand in evil hour
.
'>(,&;' Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat.'
Earth felt the" wound, and nature from her seat
Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe,
That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk
785
The guilty serpent, and well might, for Eve
Intent now wholly on her taste;' naught else
Regarded, such delight till then, as seemed,
In fruit she never tasted, whether true
Or fancied so, through expectation high
790
Of knowledge, nor was Godhead from her thought.
Greedily she engorged without restraint,
And knew not eating death:' satiate at length,
And heightened as with wine, jocund" and boon,"
Thus to herself she pleasingly began:
795
"0 sovran, virtuous, precious of all trees
In Paradise, of operation blest
To sapience, hitherto obscured, infamed,"
And thy fair fruit let hang, as to no end
Created; but henceforth my early care,
800
Not without song, each morning, and 'due praise
Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease
Of thy full branches offered free to all;
Till dieted by thee I grow mature
In knowledge, as the gods who all things know;
B05
Though others envy what they cannot give,
For had the gift been theirs, I it had not here
Thus grown. Experience, next to thee lowe,
Best guide; not following thee, I had remained
OUf
6. An authority or informant beyond suspicion.
7. Ate: an accepted past tense, pronounced et.
8. l.e., she is eating death and doesn't know it, or
experience it yet, but also, punning, death is eating
her too.
9. Slandered.
lasting (Latin,
I. Like Satan,
ascribing envy
begrudges
power
merry/jolly
"Sapience": both knowledge and
sapere).
Eve now conflates gods and God,
but also lack of power to "them." ,
PARADISE
810
815
820
eas
830
835
840
845
-\"
i~
850
855
LOST,
In ignorance, thou open'st wisdom's way,
And giv'st access, though secreta she retire.
And I perhaps am secreta Heav'n is high,
High and remote to see from thence distinct
Each thing on earth; and other care perhaps
May have diverted from continual watch
Our great Forbidder, safe with all his spies
About him. But to Adam in what sort"
Shall I appear? shall I to him make known
As yet my change, and give him to partake
Full happiness with me, or rather not,
But keep the odds" of knowledge in my power
Without copartner? so to add what wants"
In female sex, the more to draw his love,
And render me more equal, and perhaps,
A thing not undesirable, sometime'
Superior; for inferior who is free?2
This may be well: but what if God have seen,
And death ensue? Then I shall be no more,
And Adam wedded to another Eve,
Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct; .
A death to think. Confirmed then I resolve, .
Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe:
So dear I love him, that with him all deaths
I could endure, without him live no life."
So saying, from the tree her step she turned,
But first low reverence done, as to the power
That dwelt within,' whose presence had Infused
Into the plant sciential" sap, derived
From nectar, drink of gods. Adam the while
Waiting desirous her return, had wove'
Of choicest flow'rs a garland to adorn
Her tresses, and her rural labors crown,
As reapers oft are wont their harvest queen.
Great joy he promised to his thoughts, and new
.
Solace in her return, so long delayed;
Yet oft his heart, divine of" something ill,
Misgave him; he the falt'ring measure" felt;
And forth to meet her went, the way she took
That morn when first they parted; by the Tree
Of Knowledge he must pass; there he her met,
Scarce from the tree returning; in her hand
A bough of fairest fruit that downy smiled,
New gathered, and ambrosial smell diffused.
To him she hasted, in her face excuse
Came prologue," and apology to prompt,
Which with bland" words at will she thus addressed.
"Hast thou not wondered, Adam, at my stay?
Thee I have missed, and thought it long, deprived
BOOK 9
/
1979
hidden
unseen
guise
advantage
lacks
knawledge-producing
* sto p
2. cr. Satan, 1.248-63,5.790-97.
3. Eve ends with idolatry, worship of the tree.
4. l.c., excuse came like the prologue in a play,
foreboding
heartbeat
mild, coaxing
and apology (justification, self-defense) served as
prompter.